Dr. George Slavich is a seasoned leader in science and psychiatric care with 29 years of experience working in major academic medical centers. He is a leading authority in the conceptualization, assessment, and management of life stress; in psychological and biological mechanisms linking stress with mental and physical health; and in systems and policies for reducing population-level health disparities and achieving greater health equity by addressing stress-related factors at the individual and collective level. As the ninth most-cited researcher in the field of psychoneuroimmunology, Dr. Slavich developed the first online system for assessing lifetime stressor exposure; formulated the first fully integrated, multi-level theory of depression; and is helping pioneer a new field of research called human social genomics, which is revealing how social experiences reach deep inside the body to affect the human genome and health. His recent research focuses on Social Safety Theory, which describes how individual- and community-level experiences of social safety and threat influence the brain and immune system to affect human health, wellbeing, aging, and behavior across the lifespan. This translational work on the psychoneuroimmunology of stress, health, and resilience has been published in leading journals including Nature Medicine, Nature Communications, Nature Mental Health, JAMA Psychiatry, JAMA Health Forum, Molecular Psychiatry, PNAS, Psychological Bulletin, and the Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, among others.
In addition to these research efforts, Dr. Slavich is deeply devoted to teaching and mentoring and to helping develop the next generation of leaders in psychiatry, population health, psychology, and medicine. In addition to having mentored more than 185 pre- and post-doctoral trainees, early in his career Dr. Slavich founded the Stanford Undergraduate Psychology Conference, Western Psychological Association Student Council, and Society of Clinical Psychology’s Section on Graduate Students and Early Career Psychologists. More recently, he has developed a new approach to classroom instruction called transformational teaching and has written numerous articles on professional development issues in science. He has received 18 awards for these contributions since 2009, including the Neal E. Miller New Investigator Award from the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research, Herbert Weiner Early Career Award from the American Psychosomatic Society, Susan Nolen-Hoeksema Early Career Research Award from the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology, and Raymond D. Fowler Award for Outstanding Contribution to the Professional Development of Graduate Students from the American Psychological Association. Dr. Slavich was selected as a Beck Institute Scholar, at the Beck Institute for Cognitive Therapy and Research, from 2008-2009, and was a prestigious Branco Weiss Fellow from 2008-2013.
Dr. Slavich completed undergraduate and graduate coursework in psychology and communication at Stanford University, and received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from the University of Oregon. After graduate school, he was a clinical psychology intern at McLean Hospital in Boston and a clinical fellow in the Department of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. He subsequently completed three years of NIMH-supported postdoctoral training in psychoneuroimmunology at UCSF and UCLA. He is presently a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at UCLA, Founding Director of the UCLA Laboratory for Stress Assessment and Research, an Investigator at the One Mind Center for Cognitive Neuroscience, and a Research Scientist at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior. In addition to these research roles, he serves as Director of the California Stress, Trauma, and Resilience (CAL STAR) Network, Director of the UCLA Bruin Stress Resilience Network, Director of the Branco Weiss Fellowship International Collaborative Grants Program, Director of the Global Belonging Collaborative, Co-chair of the APS National Task Force on Stress Measurement in Primary Care, and Associate Director of the National Institute on Aging Stress Measurement Network. Dr. Slavich is also Director of the Evaluation and Evidence Department for the UCLA-UCSF ACEs Aware Family Resilience Network (UCAAN), which is California’s state-wide initiative to develop, promote, and sustain evidence-based methods for addressing the negative impacts of adverse childhood experiences and toxic stress physiology on health and wellbeing at the population level. UCAAN is supported by a $175 million award from the Office of the California Surgeon General and California Department of Health Care Services.
Dr. Slavich’s work has been covered by many media outlets including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Atlantic, Scientific American, TIME Magazine, HBO, and NPR, among others.